The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-02
NEW WELLS TO BE BORED
THOSE NOW IN USE DO NOT FUR
NISH ENOUGH WATER.
The Capacity of the New Pump in Ex-


The Capacity of the New Pump in Ex-
cess of the supply Indications that
the Power of Artesian Wells May
Be Taxed Too Far-The Cause Of the
Water Troubles
For awhile yesterday the water that
came through the pipes was muddy and
! discolore1, and people began to fear that
| something had happened to prevent the use
OF the artesian water. Supt. Miller was
seen tnd he said that the large pump began
knocking" in the morning, and the river
water was turned into the main= through
the small punp while the large one was
examined. He found in the new pump
some iron filings and dirt that had been left
in it when it was shipped here, and there
were also some shells which had been
brought up by the water. When it was
cleaned out it was started up again and
there has been no more trouble
THE WELLS NOT EQUAL TO THE PUMP.
The pump has n capacity of $500, 600 gal
Ions per twentyfour hours, but the wells
do not furnish that mach and the supply to
10 the city is only about $500, 900 gallons
Eleven of the wells are in use, and the re-
naming one will be connected with the
pump to-day
is supply of 6, 5OO, 900 gallons per day
sufficient for the cityF Mr.. Miller was
asked.
Eyes" he replied, sit will answer ali
ordinary demands, but if there should be
an unusual call such as there would if there
was a big fire, would have to turn on the
river water. | will connect the unused well,
but don't know how much it will add to
the supply. 1t will be but little, however"
THE supply of water will not then be
equal to the capacity of the new pump?'
mo, it will be nearly 100000 gallons
short, but | am going to bore more wells. /
don't know what the result will be though.
The pumping from all these wells has cut
channels from one to the other through the
porous rock that holds the water. Being
thus connected the pumping from one af-
fects the others.
THE WELLS AFFECT EACH OTHER.
"When / shut off the pump the water
flows from the unused well at the rate of
100 gallons a minute, but when the pump is
working and drawing water from the other
eleven wells the water in this one barely
rises to the surface, and trickles down in a
small stream The first well bored was
only 2 inches in diameter and the water
rose in 1t with pressure of
eleven pounds Then bored 6-inch well
just few feet from the first, and this well
drew water from the other so tnatit reduced
the pressure of the 2-inch we'll to about seven
pounds. | then bored 10-inch well 200 feet
away. That had no effect upon the others,
and when l had bored a number
of them, at a distance of from
20 to 125 feet apart, they all
spouted freely each independently, and
when water was pumped from one it had no
effect upon the other but now that the
water has cut channels between them. the
laNa
WILL THE NEW WELLS sPoUTa
"Have the twelve wells that have been
bored exhausted the power of the subterra-
mean stream to throw its water to the sur
facem
II do not know. 1t is possible that the
new wells will not flow above the surface,
and if that is the case we will have to bore
them further apart. The twelve that we
now have are all in space covering not
| more than two acres, and we may have to
| spread out over more ground than that.
The only objection to that is that it will
| cost so much more to run the mains from
the wells to the works than if they were
nearer together, but still the expense will
| not be very great"
Speaking of the trouble occasioned by a
short supply while the change was going on
| Mr.. Miller said that it all would have been
avoided if his orders had been carried out
THE ENGINEERS NEGLIGENCE.
| He instructed his two engineers to give the
small pump a thorough overhauling so that
it would be ready for use when the large
one was taken down, but they did not do it,
and when the small pump was started it
failed to supply sufficient water, and the
second night that it was run the pressure
dropped from 80 to II pounds. Believing
that the pump had been put in good condi-
t...l.
! trouble to it, but thought that leak had
occurred somewhere. He looked for it but
| could find none. He then thought
there must be something wrong with
the wells, and turned on river water but
the pressure was no better AS a last re-
sort he took the small pump apart and then
he found that the engineers had not carried
out his orders, and that all the pump valves
were worn out. Had it not been for the
| engineers negligence there would have been